


First Impressions

by MamaHen



Series: Memento Vivere [1]
Category: Persona 3
Genre: Also gear up for a rarepair that will literally be the first instance of the tag on AO3, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And it's time for me to break out ALL OF THEM, Angst, Call this a teaser for the verse, Does giving a character depression count as an AU?, Drama, Gen, I have a LOT of FeMC headcanons, Mental Health Issues, POV Female Character, Prologue, Self-Hatred, THIS GIRL IS SAD, TL;DR: You don't weaponize shooting yourself in the head if you're a well-adjusted individual, Unreliable Narrator, but in the mean time, to some degree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17843738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaHen/pseuds/MamaHen
Summary: Minako finally arrived at the dorms of her new school. It was a fresh start, a chance for things to be different. Or at least that's what she told herself. She'd barely been there ten minutes before things went off the rails.





	First Impressions

The lonely girl with auburn hair stared down at the paper offered to her by a little boy in prison pajamas. Her plan to sleep on the train ride had been spoiled by another nightmare, this one about the city streets being filled with coffins. It still tingled at the back of her head, a fog behind her eyes that made it hard to focus on anything. The boy made a small, inquisitive noise and asked her something that she didn’t quite hear, but the way he held out a pen let her put the pieces together. Forcing herself to focus, she blinked a few times and took another try at reading the words in front of her.

**_I chooseth this fate of mine own free will._ **

Weird wording, but she’d had to sign papers like this before moving into foster homes. They might as well have been standardized given how similar they all were. ‘Don’t break our shit, don’t steal anything, and don’t do drugs anywhere we can see it. If you do, we’ll kick you out and it’ll be your own fault.’ All she had to do was sign and wait for them to find another excuse.

**有里 実那子**  
_Arisato Minako_

Without so much as a glance downward, the boy took the paper, saying something that sounded like he might be quoting some old poetry. Minako must have zoned out after that; she thought she only closed her eyes for a moment, but by the time they opened again, he was gone. Instead, there was a girl with pale hair… pointing a _gun_ at her.

Well, that was certainly enough to wake her up. Minako’s feet carried her a couple stumbling steps backwards, arms instinctively going up. Before anything else could happen, though, another girl (Maybe even a woman? She carried herself like an adult.) moved up to push the first girl’s weapon down. They bantered casually, introducing themselves to Minako as though they hadn’t just almost shot her. Heart still pounding in her throat, Minako swallowed, and carefully lowered her arms. Clasping her hands in front of her, she closed her eyes and bowed low, staying long enough to catch her breath. When she straightened out, she did so with a subtle bounce on the balls of her feet. Her smile, though wide and bright, didn’t quite reach her eyes. Hopefully they were too tired to notice. 

People liked Minako more when she remembered their names, so Minako repeated them aloud once, and several more times in her head. “Takeba Yukari… and ...Kirijo Mitsuru! Got it.” 

“Yes, those are our names.” Mitsu-, no, _Kirijo-senpai_ spoke to her with something that might have been a patient pity, and Minako internally winced. Well, there went one first impression. “What we wanted to know was yours.” 

“Oh. Duh!” Minako thumped herself in the forehead with the heel of her hand and let out a small raspberry. “I’m Minako! Arisato Minako. It’s great to meet both of you!”

Mitsuru responded by all but dismissing Minako outright, shooing her off to bed. Her room was on the third floor, apparently. Yukari’s offered to escort her to it, and she quickly agreed. Maybe one of these relationships was still salvageable.

\-------

“Does that little boy live here? I thought this was just a high-school dorm.” Yukari had been responding positively to Minako’s casual small talk as they’d travelled upstairs, so she hadn’t thought much of broaching the subject. The look of suspicious confusion that Yukari gave her in response made Minako regret not just bringing it up, but of having ever opened her mouth in her entire life. And the more she tried to explain what she’d been talking about, the harsher Yukari’s glare grew. By the time they’d reached the door, Yukari had finally had enough.

“Is this supposed to be some kind of ghost story? This isn’t funny.” After a moment, her expression changed, though Minako couldn’t quite put her finger on how. “Was everything okay on your way here from the station? Did you… see anything else?”

 _Yes, thank you for asking. In addition to my hallucinations apparently coming back, I also had a nightmare about coffins and spent the rest of the trip dissociating._ The bitter edge in Minako’s thoughts must not have been completely hidden, because Yukari shook her head, waving the question off.

“Never mind. Um… I should get going. I’m sure you still have questions, but… let’s just save them for later, _ne_?” Yukari’s tone at the end did little to hide her desire to be done with Minako, and she turned to walk away without waiting for a response. “Good night.”

Standing there in the hallway until she was sure that there was no one else to disappoint, Minako finally twisted the knob and shouldered the door open. It slammed shut hard and loud behind her as she collapsed back against it, sliding down onto the ground where she hugged her legs and buried her face in her knees.

 _Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid, stupid._ This time was supposed to be different. It was supposed to be her chance to go to a normal school. One with normal students and normal teachers. _Everyone_ else was going to be normal... but that didn’t suddenly make _her_ any less of a freak. She hadn’t even seen the school yet, and she’d already convinced the first two students she’d met that she was some combination of an idiot and a lunatic. Why had she ever expected anything different?

Minako spent the rest of that night curled up in a ball on the floor, crying into her knees and wishing she could be someone else.

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the later chapters are going to be vignettes of sorts, rather than an exhaustive front-to-back retelling. Hopefully less likely for me to burn out this way.


End file.
